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NYC records its lowest number of traffic deaths ever in 2025
By
Liam Quigley
Published Jan 2, 2026
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By
Liam Quigley
Published Jan 2, 2026
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New York City recorded 205 traffic deaths in 2025 — its lowest figure ever, according to the city's transportation department.
That’s down 19% from 2024, when the city recorded 253 deaths, and one death fewer than in 2018, the previous safest year since the city began keeping records in 1910.
Overall, traffic deaths are also down 31% since the 2014 launch of the city’s Vision Zero road safety plan, which aimed to eliminate traffic fatalities altogether. Transportation advocates have credited street redesign projects and congestion pricing with making the city’s roads safer.
Alexa Sledge, a spokesperson for the safe streets advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, applauded the transportation department’s work.
“ The fewest traffic deaths since 1910 is an absolutely massive statistic. That's an unbelievable change,” she said. In 1990, the death toll from traffic crashes exceeded 700.
Pedestrians made up the largest share of those killed, with 111 dying in crashes in 2025 compared to 122 in 2024. Thirty-one people were killed in car crashes, down from 70 in 2020.
Fifteen people were killed riding mopeds – down from 19 in 2024. The number of moped fatalities increased dramatically after 2020, when the vehicles became more popular. The number of people killed riding traditional bicycles was also the lowest in years, with four dying in crashes.
Deaths among motorcyclists and other road users made up the rest of the toll.
The outer boroughs experienced the sharpest proportional declines in traffic deaths. The Bronx led the way with a 39% decline, while Queens followed with a 23% drop. Manhattan experienced an 11% decrease, Brooklyn’s traffic deaths fell 9%, and Staten Island remained roughly flat, with just one fewer death than last year.
Former Mayor Eric Adams appointed a political ally, Ydanis Rodriguez, to lead the transportation department from his first day as mayor. Mayor Zohran Mamdani chose to replace Rodriguez with Mike Flynn, a respected city planner who previously worked for the agency.
Adams faced increasing backlash in his final months as mayor for reversing road safety projects like a controversial bicycle lane in Brooklyn under political pressure as his re-election prospects waned.
Sledge said that while the transportation department under Rodriguez deserves credit for making streets and intersections safer, last year’s record-breaking low death count primes the incoming mayor to go even further by restarting some of those projects.
“It should be a call to action to the Mamdani administration and to everyone who’s coming in to really recommit to not only the principles of Vision Zero, but some really quick and easy day one things they can do,” Sledge said.
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transportation
Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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